Inside This Newsletter

HINDU AMERICAN FOUNDATION (HAF) CONDEMNS HINDUPHOBIC RESOLUTION IN HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

 HAF CONDEMNS ATTACK ON PAKISTANI HINDU TEMPLE

 HINDUS IN THE U.S. DEPLORE DESTRUCTION OF HINDU TEMPLE BY SAUDI ARABIA'S RELIGIOUS POLICE
 

HAF Condemns Hinduphobic Resolution in House of Representatives

Press Release
DATE: March 21, 2005

The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) expressed grave disappointment over omissions in House Resolution 160 introduced by Representative Joseph Pitts (R-PA) and Representative John Conyers (D-MI) on March 16, 2005. According to the preamble, the purpose of the resolution was "to condemn all violations of religious freedom in India." In letters written to both Congressmen, HAF criticized the resolution for its complete neglect of violations and persecution against Hindus in not only India, but also other countries of South Asia.

The resolution represented a political agenda, according to HAF, as it was submitted in advance of a planned visit by Narendra Modi, the Chief Minister of the state of Gujarat, India, to the United States. The visit was cancelled on March 18, 2005 when the United States State Department abruptly revoked Mr. Modi's tourist visa and declined granting him a diplomatic visa. There is speculation that the resolution, in addition to a coordinated campaign by members of the Forum of Indian Leftists, Indian Muslim Council, Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations of North America, Coalition Against Genocide, and others to vilify not only Modi, but his political party, the Bharatiya Janata Party, led to the unexpected decision.

HAF expressed concern to Congressmen Pitts and Conyers about their criticism of India for alleged violations of religious freedom. As the world's largest democracy with a constitution influenced by the Hindu ethos of tolerance and pluralism, combined with a mature judiciary and human rights monitoring mechanisms, HAF felt that India hardly deserved to be a target of such a resolution. HAF also expressed frustration that the Congressmen made India a focus of a resolution condemning religious persecution in South Asia while Pakistan and Bangladesh escaped mention.

"The heinous tragedy that befell Gujarati Muslims in riots after the murder of 58 Hindus burned alive on a train by terrorists must be denounced. But if the Congressmen were sincere in their censure of violations of religious freedom, they would not have ignored the situation in India's Jammu & Kashmir state, where thousands have been massacred, and where religio-ethnic cleansing by Islamist extremists supported by Pakistan has resulted in an exodus of 400,000 Hindus, Sikhs, and Indian Muslims from their ancestral homes," said Dr. Mihir Meghani, President of the Hindu American Foundation.

"HAF presented evidence during a Capitol Hill reception and Congressional visits in May 2004, of the tens of thousands of Hindus murdered, raped and driven from their homes in Bangladesh beginning as recently as 2001, and religious cleansing of millions of people continuing even today," said Swaminathan Venkataraman, member of the HAF Executive Council. "Ignoring those figures and the contemptible human rights record within Pakistan renders this resolution hopelessly deficient," he added.

Perhaps most outrageous to many Hindus, according to HAF, is the implication inherent in a line in the submitted resolution "…that those arrested in connection with the bombings and retaliatory attacks on Hindus in India have claimed that they carried out their actions in revenge for the state-assisted killings of Muslims in Gujarat…"

HAF denounced the statement in strong terms. "It is this very rhetoric—that terrorism and atrocities committed against Hindus is by some perverse logic justifiable—that has left Hindu victims ignored," the letter stated.

HAF members pointed out that the genocide and forced exodus of surviving Hindus from the Kashmir valley, the deaths of over 50,000 Indian citizens due to the Pakistan sponsored insurgency in the valley and the 2001 attack on India's Parliament by Islamist terrorists predated the tragedy in Gujarat.

In addition, the involvement of Congressman Pitts, known for his championing the Pakistani rhetoric about Kashmir, despite that country's support for terrorism in Kashmir, was a source of consternation for many Hindu Americans.

"Congressman Pitts has a history of ignoring the suffering of Hindus everywhere, especially in South Asia," said Dr. Meghani. "His personal biases against Hindus and India are disappointingly transparent in this resolution."

HAF also announced a campaign to educate the nearly 2 million Hindus in the United States of the efforts by Congressman Pitts, a small minority of others in the House of Representatives, Islamist groups, and radical communist groups to systematically promote a Hinduphobic and anti-India agenda within the United States.

“This pro-active campaign furthers HAF's mission of promoting tolerance, pluralism and understanding,” Dr. Meghani said. “We need to come to terms with the reality of terrorism in South Asia and urge justice for all victims of religious and ethnic violence."

If you would like to voice your opinion on this matter, contact your representative at www.congress.org.

For further information: Please contact HAF.

HAF Condemns Attack on Pakistani Hindu Temple

Press Release
DATE: March 25, 2005

The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) condemns the March 17 killing of eighteen Hindus and the destruction of a Hindu temple in the town of Dera Bugti within the Pakistani province of Balochistan. Among the dead include five women and three children. Agence France Presse reports that along with the temple, several homes were hit by rockets resulting from skirmishes between Pakistani paramilitary forces and Balochi tribals.

Several Pakistani politicians have condemned the attack, including the chiefs of the Awami National Party, the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal, the Alliance for Restoration of Democracy, and the Baloch Alliance. HAF applauds the courage of these leaders and sympathizes with them as they confront the deteriorating situation in Balochistan. HAF sincerely wishes that the dispatch of a delegation from the combined opposition parties in the National Assembly will uncover the truth behind these unnecessary deaths.

This incident points to the growing intolerance within Pakistan. Pakistan’s Dawn Newspaper reports an attack on a church in Punjab by an Imam and his students from a neighboring mosque on March 16 soon after Asr prayers, taking matters into his own hands after disagreeing with the construction of the church. Forty people died on March 19 after a bomb exploded at a shrine during an annual remembrance of a saint in the city of Gandava, also in Balochistan. Against the backdrop of such violence in one week, it is no wonder that Pakistan’s National Commission for Justice and Peace’s (NCJP) “Human Rights Report - 2005” notes a distrust of government institutions among ethnic, religious, and linguistic minorities. The Report also states that 762 non-Muslims were forcibly converted to Islam between 1999 and 2004. Among the 280 blasphemy cases registered from 1987 to August 2004, 59 cases were registered against Ahmadis, 65 cases were against Christians, and five against Hindus. HAF endorses the views of the NCJP for Pakistan to discontinue state-sponsored exclusivism by abolishing blasphemy laws – largely seen as targeting minorities – and abolishing the law requiring the head of state to be Muslim.

HAF expresses its strongest concern that religious parties will prevail upon the Government of Pakistan to include a religion column on future passports of Pakistani citizens. Discontinued under the Zafarullah Khan administration, the column would only identify and endanger religious minorities within Pakistan. HAF hopes that the United States will take up this issue with the appropriate Pakistani authorities.

For further information: Please contact HAF.

Hindus in U.S. Deplore Destruction of Temple by Saudi Police

Press Release
DATE: March 29, 2005

The Hindu American Foundation (HAF) expressed shock and outrage over the destruction of a Hindu temple in Saudi Arabia on March 24, 2005, and rapid deportation of Hindus found worshipping at the temple by the Saudi government.

Several news agencies, including the pan-Arab Al-Hayat, reported on March 26th, 2005 that Saudi Islamic police, known as the Members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, or Mutawaa’in, found the makeshift temple while raiding a number of apartments in a district populated by Asians. The sudden raid by the Islamic police, it was announced, came on suspicion of illicit alcohol manufacturing and distribution of pornographic materials originating in that area. When the Mutawaa’in forcibly entered the apartment, of which one room was festooned with images of Hindu Deities, the police immediately destroyed the makeshift temple and demanded that worshippers cease their activities. When the caretaker-priest refused to stop performing his religious rituals, he and two other worshippers were deported, Al-Hayat reported. There were no reports of alcohol or pornographic material being discovered.

“Desecration and destruction of a place of worship is a gross of violation of human rights,” said Pawan Deshpande, member of the Hindu American Foundation Executive Council. “For a so-called ‘religious’ police force, sponsored by the government, to perpetrate such depravity against a peaceful Hindu community deserves unequivocal condemnation by the global community.”

All forms of non-Muslim worship are banned in ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia, whose laws conform to Sharia, laws based on teachings of the Koran, and Wahhabi Islam. Several human rights organizations have condemned actions by the Saudi government and its religious police, including extrajudicial punishments for any outward display of non-Muslim religious symbols. The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) last month urged the US government to impose sanctions on Saudi Arabia for violating religious rights.

“Mutawwa'in (religious police) continued to intimidate, abuse and detain citizens and foreigners with impunity. Most trials were closed, and defendants usually had no legal counsel,” according to the section on Saudi Arabia in the State Department annual report on human rights and democracy released on March 28, 2005.

The Hindu American Foundation expresses deep concern for the blatant violations of religious freedom in Saudi Arabia against non-Islamic faiths. “The intolerance in Saudi Arabia is particularly worrisome because it is enforced and endorsed by the state government itself,” according to Aseem Shukla, M.D., member of the Hindu American Foundation Board of Directors. “We call for the U.S. government to demand that Saudi Arabia implement immediate reforms with regards to religious freedom in that country.”

For further information: Please contact HAF.